Marken

Early years

Marken was an island in the Zuiderzee.[1]

For some time during the later 19th and early 20th centuries, Marken and its inhabitants were the focus of considerable attention by folklorists, ethnographers and physical anthropologists, who regarded the small fishing town as a relic of the traditional native culture that was destined to disappear as modernization of the Netherlands gained pace.[2] Among them were Johann Friedrich Blumenbach who examined a human skull from the island which he called Batavus genuinus; and was the Belgian painter Xavier Mellery who stayed in Marken at the request of Charles De Coster. Mellery was asked to create illustrative work and delivered several intimist works.

Cornelis Lely's designs incorporated the island into a proposed Markerwaard. A partial dike, built in 1941 in the north, is the first phase of that project which was stopped by World War II.

Girls in traditional costumes (circa 1900)

Fisherman in traditional costume (circa 1900)

Recent times

The island appeared as a location in the 1970 film Puppet on a Chain. In 1983, the Marker Museum about the history of the island was opened.[3] Marken was a separate municipality until 1991, when it was merged into Waterland.[4]

^ (in Dutch) Geschiedenis van Marken, Marker Museum. Retrieved 19 August 2015. ^ H.W. Roodenburg, "Marken als relict: het samengaan van schilderkunst, toerisme, volkskunde en fysische antropologie rond 1900". Volkskundig Bulletin 25.2/3 (1999), 197-214. ^ (in Dutch) Het Marker Museum, Marker Museum. Retrieved 18 August 2015. ^ Ad van der Meer and Onno Boonstra, Repertorium van Nederlandse gemeenten, KNAW, 2011.